RWC 1999 Hosted By Wales

The 1999 Rugby World Cup which was hosted by Wales, saw a change in the format as for the first time the big eight nations did not qualify automatically. Only the champions, the runners-up, the third place play-off winners from 1995 and the host nation were afforded that luxury. This meant that South Africa, New Zealand, France and Wales were assured of their places in the expanded 20-team tournament with 65 nations taking part in the qualification process for the other 16 places.

Australia beat France convincingly 35 points to 12 in a one sided final in the Millennium Stadium to become the first side to win the title twice. The tournament was dazzled by new faces in a Wallaby back line including George Gregan, Stephen Larkham, Joe Roff and Toutai Kofu with probably man of the tournament fullback Matt Burke, players who offered massive defence and silky skills in attack.

Australia's match winning try against France in 1999.

Pool Stage Qualifiers

Pool A	Scotland	South Africa	Spain	Uruguay
Pool B	England	Italy	New Zealand	Tonga
Pool C	Canada	France	Fiji	Namibia
Pool D	Argentina	Japan	Wales	Western Samoa
Pool E	Australia	Ireland	Romania	USA

Scores from the pools:

Date	Venue	Sides	Score
1 October 1999	Stade De La Mediterranee	Fiji v Namibia	67-18
1 October 1999	Millenium Stadium	Wales v Argentina	23-18
2 October 1999	Netherdale Stadium	Uruguay v Spain	27-15
2 October 1999	Stade De La Mediterranee	France v Canada	33-20
2 October 1999	Twickenham	England v Italy	67-7
2 October 1999	Lansdowne Road	Ireland v USA	53-8
3 October 1999	Racecourse Ground	Samoa v Japan	43-9
3 October 1999	Ashton gate	New Zealand v Tonga	45-9
3 October 1999	Murrayfield	South Africa v Scotland	46-29
3 October 1999	Ravenhill	Australia v Romania	57-9
8 October 1999	Murrayfield	Scotland v Uruguay	43-12
8 October 1999	Stade Lescure	France v Namibia	47-13
9 October 1999	Millenium Stadium	Wales v Japan	64-15
9 October 1999	Stade Lescure	Fiji v Canada	38-22
9 October 1999	Twickenham	New Zealand v England	30-16
9 October 1999	Lansdowne Road	Romania v USA	27-25
10 October 1999	Stradey Park	Argentina v Samoa	32-16
10 October 1999	Lansdowne Road	Australia v Ireland	23-3
10 October 1999	Murrayfield	South Africa v Spain	47-3
10 October 1999	Welford Road	Tonga v Italy	28-25
14 October 1999	Millenium Stadium	Samoa v Wales	38-31
14 October 1999	Stade Municipal	Canada v Namibia	72-11
14 October 1999	Alfred meAlpine	New Zealand v Italy	101-3
14 October 1999	Thomond Park	Australia v USA	55-19
15 October 1999	Twickenham	England v Tonga	101-10
15 October 1999	Hampden Park	South Africa v Uruguay	39-3
15 October 1999	Lansdowne Road	Ireland v Romania	44-14
16 October 1999	Millenium Stadium	Argentina v Japan	33-12
16 October 1999	Stade Municipal	France v Fiji	28-19
16 October 1999	Murrayfield	Scotland v Spain	48-0
20 October 1999	Twickenham	England v Fiji	45-24
20 October 1999	Murrayfield	Scotland v Samoa	35-20
20 October 1999	Stade Felix Bollaert	Argentina v Ireland	28-24

Quarter finals

23 October 1999	Millenium Stadium	Australia v Wales	24-9
24 October 1999	Stade De France	South Africa v England	44-21
24 October 1999	Lansdowne Road	France v Argentina	47-26
24 October 1999	Murrayfield	New Zealand v Scotland	30-18

Semi finals

30 October 1999	Twickenham	Australia v South Africa	27-21
31 October 1999	Twickenham	France v New Zealand	43-31

3rd place play off

4 November 1999

Millenium Stadium

South Africa v New Zealand

22-18

Final

6 November 1999

Millenium Stadium

Australia v France

35-12